MONTGOMERY, Alabama -- Vicki's Lunch Van has been a busy place the past week or so.

Very busy.

Ever since the cheeseburger served at the small lunch-only restaurant was named the best burger in Alabama by somebody (me) it has been a hot bed of activity. It's safe to say that that the small west Montgomery lunch spot has found itself one of the hottest dining destinations in the state.

"It's been quite a ride, quite a ride," said Chason Smitherman, son of owner Vicki Lammon and a front-of-the house employee.

Vicki's Lunch Van (which isn't a lunch van at all) was ill-equipped to handle the rush of customers eager to find out what all the fuss was about. Smitherman said the response was, well, overwhelming.

"When I got to work on that Wednesday (June 18) when the announcement was made there was already a line out the door at 10:30 a.m. I guess there were 15-20 people in line before we opened up the doors," he said.

On a normal week Vicki's usually hand pats out between 300-400 pounds of fresh ground beef for burgers. But in the week after they were crowned the best burger in Bama, they sold somewhere in the neighborhood of 700 pounds of meat. "We came very, very close to running out of meat one day," Smitherman said.

The attention has changed the way they do business, too. What was normally a 45 minute wait for a burger on Fridays – normally Vicki's busiest day – turned into a 90 minute wait and longer. And it wasn't just Friday, either. "Yesterday (Monday) is usually our relaxed day in the week when we can take things easy, but it was like a Friday," he said.

Vicki's regulars, the ones who already knew that she makes a fine burger, are taking the new attention in stride. "That first day after the announcement was made I spent most of my time talking to customers, apologizing for the long wait times. But everybody understood and were great about it," he said.

Smitherman said things are definitely changed for the better at Vicki's from a business standpoint. "We didn't expect to win; we just did it and tried to have fun with it and then we won," he said. "It's really just been unreal."

The folks at Vicki's have been coping with their newfound fame and having fun with the notoriety (the Montgomery mayor is to be there on Thursday to present them with a proclamation), but they are taking it all in stride. "I guess we're not a secret anymore," Smitherman said.